Come to Google "and change the world"

But don't come for the perks, says CEO Schmidt

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Go to Google for the money, not the food

If you happen to become employed by Google, Eric Schmidt has warned that the company's 'perk' culture is not a reason to work for the company, citing that you should see the job as "changing the world" and not focus on the freebies.

Speaking at a Google press conference held this week, Schmidt explained that because of the recession, even the biggest search engine in the world has had to batten down the hatches when it comes to money, but this doesn't mean that Google employees shouldn't stop being passionate about what they do.

The company in recent months has disbanded some of its perk culture, including childcare and some free food, but if this was the reason Googlers came to work then they've got it all wrong.

"Google pays very well. Google is clearly a growth company, by any metric. And people at Google don't work for those reasons at Google," Schmidt explained.

"We don't want them to come to Google for those reasons. We want them to come to Google to change the world."

Life is short

After this, Schmidt's speech got even more profound, almost making you forget that it came from the mouth of an on-paper billionaire.

In it he explained that if you work for Google then expect to be paid handsomely for what you do: "Life is short. And everybody here understands that. Life is short; you should work on the things that are most important. If you want to work on what Google is working on – cloud computing, search, all the things that we talk about all the time – then come to Google and we will pay you well."

Reset the culture

Backing up his cohort, co-founder Sergey Brin also said that the perk culture at Google had to be changed, but this was only a natural thing, explaining: "I think it's important to reset the culture from time to time. And I think several years ago we did that.

"Clearly, people had extrapolated from our past practices what the vision might be. And having actually been there, and knowing the rationale… we decided to, for example, significantly cut down all the snacks that had been available."

As the cold winter of economic discontent bites all around us, at least we are all now safe in the knowledge that Google as a company is more focused on "changing the world" than having a little snack.